[whatwg] Suggestion for new element/attribute

Aux aux at hexmode.org
Thu Apr 26 22:13:56 PDT 2007


width="*" in tables means that this cell will take all possible width. 
There is no AFAIK such attr in CSS.

Brenton Strine wrote:
> I don't think that code works. I can't get it to. At
> least, if it does, it is extremely fragile and breaks if
> everything else isn't set exactly right.
>
> Is there an equivelant of the "*" in CSS? I don't think
> there is.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: whatwg-bounces at lists.whatwg.org
> [mailto:whatwg-bounces at lists.whatwg.org] On Behalf Of Aux
> Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 12:35 AM
> To: whatwg at lists.whatwg.org
> Subject: Re: [whatwg] Suggestion for new
> element/attribute
>
> This code works fine. The only thing is to move * width
> into CSS.
>
> <table>
>     <tr>
>        <td>
>           <div>blablabla</div>
>           . . .
>        </td>
>        <td width="*"> </td>
>     </tr>
> </table>
>
> Brenton Strine wrote:
>   
>> Consider this case:
>>
>> You have a table one row high with two cells. It's
>>     
> width is 100%.
>   
>> You want the width of the left cell to be only as big
>>     
> as the content, 
>   
>> and you want the right cell to take up all the rest of
>>     
> the space.
>   
>> However, the amount of content in both the right and
>>     
> the left cell 
>   
>> changes, so you can't give a percent or a pixel width.
>>
>> In that situation, you could either 1) intentionally
>>     
> give the right 
>   
>> cell an incorrect width of 100%, or 2) put a whole lot
>>     
> of invisible 
>   
>> text in it, so that the cell always expands enough to
>>     
> make the left 
>   
>> cell only the minimum size needed.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis
>> [mailto:bhawkeslewis at googlemail.com]
>> Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 3:44 PM
>> To: Brenton Strine
>> Cc: whatwg at lists.whatwg.org
>> Subject: Re: [whatwg] Suggestion for new
>>     
> element/attribute
>   
>> This sounds very much like something that should be
>>     
> done in CSS, not 
>   
>> HTML. But can you explain what you mean by "expand ...
>>     
> as if it were 
>   
>> full of text"? If something is already a given size,
>>     
> then filling it 
>   
>> with text should not make it expand.
>>
>> --
>> Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis
>>
>> Brenton Strine wrote:
>>   
>>     
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I am new here, so please let me know if I am doing
>>>       
> anything out of 
>   
>>> order.
>>>
>>> I would like to make a suggestion for soemthing I want
>>>     
>>>       
>> to
>>   
>>     
>>> see in HTML5.
>>>
>>> I call it the inflate tag. <inflate>.
>>>
>>> The purpose of this tag is to expand that which
>>>     
>>>       
>> contains
>>   
>>     
>>> it as if it were full of text. I have seen many
>>>     
>>>       
>> websites
>>   
>>     
>>> where the designers were forced to put long strings of
>>>       
> hidden text 
>   
>>> into a cell in order to make it expand correctly. Thus
>>>       
> text browsers 
>   
>>> find strange segments
>>>     
>>>       
>> like
>>   
>>     
>>> this:
>>>
>>> w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w
>>>       
> w
>   
>>>     
>>>       
>> w
>>   
>>     
>>> w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w
>>>       
> w
>   
>>>     
>>>       
>> w
>>   
>>     
>>> w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w
>>>       
> w
>   
>>>     
>>>       
>> w
>>   
>>     
>>> w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w
>>>       
> w
>   
>>>     
>>>       
>> w
>>   
>>     
>>> w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w
>>>       
> w
>   
>>>     
>>>       
>> w
>>   
>>     
>>> w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w
>>>       
> w
>   
>>>     
>>>       
>> w
>>   
>>     
>>> w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w
>>>       
> w
>   
>>>     
>>>       
>> w
>>   
>>     
>>> w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w
>>>       
> w
>   
>>>     
>>>       
>> w
>>   
>>     
>>> w w w w w w w w
>>>
>>> Of course, developers already have the ability to
>>>     
>>>       
>> specify
>>   
>>     
>>> the width in terms of pixels, ems, percent, and tons
>>>       
> of other stuff. 
>   
>>> But there are times, particularly in fluid design,
>>>       
> when you can't get 
>   
>>> the div to work the way you want without text to
>>>       
> expand it.
>   
>>> This could even be an attribute rather than a tag:
>>> width="inflate".
>>>
>>> Brenton
>>>
>>>     
>>>       
>>   
>>     
>
>   



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